Knowing how to get rid of cellulite completely requires a better understanding of what the real cause is. Let me tell you how to remove these fat deposits and explain what it is about.
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In this article:
The Layers of Your Skin, Tissue, and Muscles
What Is Cellulite?
The Common Causes of Cellulite
Cellulite Is a Major Condition That Takes Time to Get Reversed
How to Get Rid of Cellulite Naturally
The Layers of Your Skin, Tissue, and Muscles
Before I talk about how to get rid of cellulite, let me first explain the layers of your skin, tissue, and muscles. Normally, you have the skin and the outer connective tissue called fascia right underneath the skin. It's like a sheath of connective tissue that keeps everything together. You also have a fat layer and the muscles. These are the layers that cellulite can affect.
What Is Cellulite?
The next thing you need to know before learning how to get rid of cellulite is understanding what the condition is. What happens with cellulite is there is an enlargement of the fat cells. These fat cells get bigger because fat fills them up. This causes an overstretch of your fascia, so the "spider web" thing that's supposed to hold everything together starts to separate.
The fat bulges up through the fascia, giving this "dimpled skin" or “skin dimpling” effect. Behind it, you have the atrophied muscle that makes the whole thing jiggly and hang off the body. The combination of the atrophied muscle, fat cell enlargement, and broken-down fascia creates this cellulite.
Muscle Atrophy Definition: It is a decrease in muscle mass typically experienced when there are temporary disabling circumstances, such as restriction in movement.
The Common Causes of Cellulite
Let's now talk about how to reverse cellulite because there are things you can do about it. If you were pregnant, gained a lot of weight, and then lost a lot of weight, you'll eventually get cellulite because these situations create the overstretching of the fascia. Typically, what happens during menopause is a hormonal shift. You may be physically inactive, and everything starts going downhill, which can lead to cellulite. The following are what you need to focus on to reduce cellulite:
1. Shrink the Fat Cells
Learning how to get rid of cellulite starts with shrinking the fat skin cells. You need to get the fat out from them. When you lose weight or fat, you're not getting rid of the fat cells, you are just shrinking them because you can't really get rid of your fat cells. To make them shrink, you have to deal with the main hormone that controls how much fat goes in there, which is Fat Storing Hormone.
You need to lower Fat Storing Hormone. Anything high in sugar increases Fat Storing Hormone, and Fat Storing Hormone blocks the burning of fat. The fat cells in your body enlarge due to higher levels of Fat Storing Hormone. Fat Storing Hormone resistance influences this.
You cannot fight cellulite without lowering Fat Storing Hormone first. So, how do you lower Fat Storing Hormone? Here are some tips you can try:
Change your diet or eating plan
Reduce sugars and carbs
Eat 3-6 ounces of protein per meal
Eat lots of greens
Eliminate monosodium glutamate (MSG) in your food.
Follow intermittent fasting (two meals a day and no snacking)
Add fat to your meal to last longer between meals
These tips help decrease the fat for sure. Because the fat cells get bigger, they are also producing inflammation, which is probably causing soreness in your hips and thighs. Once you reduce the fat cells, the soreness goes away.
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2. Tighten Up Your Fascia
A fascia is a type of fibrous tissue, mainly composed of collagen and controlled by the growth hormone (GH). GH is the ultimate anti-aging hormone that keeps your proteins in a good state. It also helps maintain the elasticity of the hair, skin, nails, and the fascia around your hips and buttocks. If you try to lose weight unhealthily, you can never fix the GH factor. You end up never getting rid of cellulite. Getting your liver healthy is key here because it triggers the GH as much as it can.
Doing high-intensity interval training is also another way to trigger the GH. The best way to do this is by using a combination of higher intensity, full-body exercises that target the hips and thighs and lots of rest. The key here is recovery and high-quality sleep. Remember not to overtrain. The combination of diet and exercise should help improve muscle tone.
You also need to consume moderate amounts of protein and high-quality amino acids. I like eggs, especially egg yolks. If you want to include protein powder, make sure to add fat to it.
Intermittent fasting is also vital because it triggers the GH. If you are eating five or six meals a day with snacks, you are never going to increase the GH. Get more Vitamin D, too, and try to get more sun exposure.
3. Lower Cortisol Levels
The third thing you can do to eliminate cellulite is lowering cortisol. If the muscles are atrophied, then cortisol is usually higher. Cortisol, an adrenal stress hormone, can increase due to menopausal changes. When you have higher amounts of cortisol, your body breaks down muscle tissue quicker than it builds. The medical term for this process is catabolic, which means “to break down.” Cortisol is one of the catabolic hormones.
The hormone is very destructive to the muscles. Producing more cortisol because of stress prevents anything from working. It keeps Fat Storing Hormone high and the GH down, so we need to handle this.
You may want to support the adrenals directly if you need to because they control cortisol. Typically, what you have to do is cut the environmental stress, increase your sleep and Vitamin D, and get more sun if you can.
You can also do a lot of walking, around 45 mins or longer a day, as it helps lower cortisol. For the days you don't do the high-intensity training, go for a walk. You can also take the Adrenal & Cortisol Support supplements to help manage cortisol levels in your body.
4. Reduce Estrogen Levels
The last thing is estrogen. Estrogen can also be a factor since higher amounts of estrogen increase fat in the lower half of the body. More women get cellulite than men because of the estrogen component. To reduce the formation of cellulite, you should consume cruciferous vegetables and keep your liver healthy.
Cellulite Is a Major Condition That Takes Time to Get Reversed
The last thing I want to mention is cellulite is not a little thing. It's a major problem that has been there chronically. It takes so many years to end up getting cellulite. It's going to take some time to get your hips or thighs back to their normal state. It can take one to three years before you start getting your tissues back to normal.
Don't think getting rid of cellulite is going to happen in a week. Think long term because to rebuild the tissue and muscles, especially if you are into the menopausal stage, it’s going to take time, but you will see changes and improvements in the process. You can take before and after pictures to visualize your progress.
Learning how to get rid of cellulite requires your understanding of the science behind its cause. Cellulite primarily happens because of fat, so you need to manage your weight to prevent it, especially if you’re menopausal already. Try my helpful tips to reverse cellulite and experience a better body shape over time.
How long have you had cellulite? What are your ways to get rid of it? Share your experience in the comments section below!
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Disclaimer: Our educational content is not meant or intended for medical advice or treatment.